The Hennepin Healthcare System, Inc. (HHS) Board of Directors has named Jon Pryor, MD, MBA, as the new chief executive officer. HHS is the public subsidiary corporation of Hennepin County that operates Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC), a Minneapolis trauma center and public hospital and clinic system. Pryor replaces David BM Jones, who stepped in as interim CEO in August when Arthur Gonzalez left to become CEO of Denver Health.

“Dr. Pryor will be a transformational leader because of his passion for the mission of HCMC, his experience as an outstanding clinician, and his high level of business acumen from his time with a national business consulting firm and service as CEO of a large medical practice,” said Sharon Sayles Belton, chair of the HHS board. “He is bringing that experience and passion home to where he started as a medical resident in the HCMC Surgery Residency program. He knows first-hand the essential role that HCMC plays in our community.”

Pryor is CEO of the Medical College of Wisconsin Medical College Physicians, a clinical practice group of physicians and Advanced Practice Providers who are the medical staff for Froedtert Health System, a large system in Wisconsin.

He is a former chair of the Department of Urologic Surgery at the University of Minnesota and a graduate of the University of Minnesota School of Medicine. Pryor earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and has worked for McKinsey & Company, a leading national business and strategic consulting firm.

“Hennepin County Medical Center has a long-standing national reputation of excellence for its teaching and providing health care to a diverse community. It is a critical part of Minnesota’s healthcare fabric and it touches every resident of the state – either as a provider of care or teacher of the physicians who are providing care in hospitals and clinics across the state today,” said Pryor. “I am one of those fortunate physicians who received my training at HCMC and now I look forward to returning to help continue to improve the delivery of care and position HCMC to succeed in a challenging health care environment.”

Healthcare reform is shifting the focus for all providers from inpatient care and volume-based pay fee for service, to value-based payment models and population health management through wellness, prevention and management of chronic disease. To prepare for these changes, HCMC has expanded its clinic system by more than doubling the number of neighborhood clinics it operates in Minneapolis and the surrounding suburbs. In addition to primary care and specialty clinics on the downtown Minneapolis campus, HCMC now has neighborhood primary care clinics in Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center, Richfield, St. Anthony Village, and south and southeast Minneapolis, a retail clinic in Bloomington and a specialty clinic in Chaska.

“What we once knew primarily as a large downtown hospital is now a healthcare system with a growing network of clinics offering convenient access to quality care and expertise to residents in communities across Hennepin County,” said Jan Callison, Hennepin County Commissioner and HHS Board member. “Dr. Pryor brings the right mix of leadership experience, clinical excellence, and a deep understanding of our role in the community that will serve us well as we continue this transformation and remain a strong trauma and critical care hospital, top teaching institution, essential safety net provider, and a leader of emergency preparedness for our region.”

Significant recent investment into the downtown campus includes construction of all new intensive care units, a new Burn Center, Center for Hyperbaric Oxygen, Center for Wound Healing and an advanced simulation center for medical education. HCMC also invested early in an electronic medical record system and now ranks in the top two percent nationally for full electronic medical records implementation.

Hennepin County Medical Center is a nationally recognized Level 1 Adult Trauma Center and Level I Pediatric Trauma Center with the largest emergency department in Minnesota. The comprehensive public teaching hospital includes a 462-bed acute care hospital and primary care and specialty clinics located in downtown Minneapolis and the surrounding suburbs.